As we leave Roxbury behind for the week, we wanted to take you to the hamlet of Grand Gorge, located in the town of Roxbury, just a few miles northeast of the hamlet of Roxbury. There’s not much for sale in Grand Gorge outside of a few plots of land and this super-affordable Victorian on five acres.

The house is two stories with an insulated attic ready to be finished. There’s also a finished basement and separate studio on the property. It looks like a great bargain at less than $100/square foot plus all the land.

Not that we want to bring down the tone of a relatively cheerful post about a nice house with a dose of reality, but here goes. Keep in mind that this part of the state was hit hard by Hurricane Irene. Roxbury, Grand Gorge, Prattsville, Arkville, and Margaretville, just to a name a few, suffered, in some places, almost complete destruction during the storm, and the Schoharie Creek town of Prattsville (about 5 miles south of Grand Gorge) is practically starting from scratch in locations on the waterfront. We love Delaware County and these Catskill towns, but it’s hard to talk about these places without remembering recent history.

40568 State Hwy 23, Grand Gorge (Frank Lumia Real Estate) GMAP (location is approximate)
Asking Price: $199,000
Beds: 4
Baths: 2
Square Feet: 2024
Year Built: 1906
Land: 5.3 acres
Taxes: $4,137
Features: Close to four ski centers, lots-o-land

The good news, if you’re interest in buying an investment property in Roxbury, is that there’s not a lot of competition in the vacation rental market. There are more great houses to buy than to lease for a weekend. But we combed through the offerings on sites like VRBO and AirBnB, and here’s are the rentals that floated our boat:

“Million Dollar View” contemporary
Beds: 3
Baths: 2
Sleeps: 8
Rates: Starting at $180/night
Comment: The vista far outweighs the interior

Roxbury Farmhouse/Barn
Beds: 6
Baths: 3
Sleeps: 12-14
Rates: $2,500 per week in high season
Comments: has a pond, a barn and 17 acres; marketed for weddings

John Burroughs Boyhood Home
Beds: 5
Baths: 3
Sleeps: 10
Rates: $1,300/week
Comments: Yum.

Alta Visa Cabin
Beds: 2
Baths: 1
Sleeps: 4
Rates: $800/week
Comments: “Cozy.”

The Roxbury Arts Group (RAG) provides performances and art exhibitions across three Delaware County venues: Roxbury, Stamford, and the Denver Vega Valley. They also hold a number of workshops and classes throughout the year. For kids, the RAG offers lots of dance classes, like ballet, hip hop, and creative movement. Adults can take dance classes, too. Yoga at the Barre, belly-dancing, and Bollywood-style dancing classes are open to ages 14 and up. Have a look at the class descriptions and schedule.

The first Friday of the month is open mic night at the RAG venue in Stamford (76 Main! Coffee house), and a writers’ group meets on the first Monday of the month to bounce story ideas off of each other and present new works.

Lots of movies and performances are coming up at RAG, too, and many are free. The Stamford venue is showing three movies in May. The Vanishing of the Bees is showing on May 3, What’s On Your Plate? on May 10, and Tapped on May 17. Admission is free for all three.

There are events taking place at the Roxbury Arts Center on Vega Mountain Road, as well, and the center has its own gallery, which is open by appointment. The RAG also has a number of calls for submissions listed on Roxbury’s official website.

The RAG rents their space for private parties and events. Check out the brochure. The space is pretty, the setting is certainly bucolic, and the price is affordable. Looks like an ideal place to have an upstate NY wedding.

There’s lots of prettiness and potential on state highway 30 (the main street in Roxbury). Some houses need a lot of work, but some are well-kept, like this renovated circa-1900 arts and crafts.

It contains all the usual suspects: Open floor plan, hardwood floors, living room fireplace, granite kitchen, lovely detailing, plus an outdoor hot tub. It’s on state highway 30, but it’s set back a bit from the road. Decent-sized fenced-in yard with stone patio, too.

One thing we did notice is that the backyard abuts a cemetery. In fact, the headstones would be practically on the property if not for the row of trees. Could be either creepy or cool, depending on how you like to look at things. (Insert joke about how people are dying to move into the neighborhood here)

54096 State Highway 30, Roxbury (For Sale by Owner) GMAP
Asking Price: $325,000
Beds: 4
Baths: 2.5
Square Feet: 2,609
Year Built: 1900
Land: .5 acres
Taxes: $3,907
Features: Outdoor hot tub, landscaping

Grand Gorge is a hamlet in the Town of Roxbury, located just a few miles northeast of the hamlet of Roxbury. This house is cute, affordable, within walking distance to Grand Gorge, and the taxes seem low (although it has been pointed out, and rightly so, that we might be a bit jaded regarding tax rates here at Upstater).

We like some of the details inside: The French doors in the dining room, the sun room, the big window in the master bedroom, and the tin ceiling in the bathroom. We like less that it’s right on State Highway 23, and, aside from the pretty blooming tree in the front yard, it’s very exposed. Lot is small (under a half-acre) but still big enough for a decent backyard and garden.

36975 State Hwy 23, Roxbury (Coldwell Banker) GMAP
Asking Price: $154,900
Beds: 3
Baths: 2.5
Square Feet: 1,750
Year Built: 1918
Land: .3 acres
Taxes: $3,575
Features: Recent renovations, walk-out basement

Yep, it’s definitely a fixer-upper. But behind its somewhat grimy-with-age exterior and paint-chipped ornate details, 40 Bridge Street looks like it could be an enviable house.

What it’s got going for it: The interior appears in better shape than the exterior. Lots of woodtrim detailing, French doors, built-ins, etc. The price is great, and the taxes are very low (less than $2500). Plus, it’s in great part of Roxbury. But is there really a bad part of Roxbury? Not that we could see.

Problems? Well, the lot is pretty small for an area with lots of options with more land. And the aforementioned elbow grease involved with fixing it up. Also, in spite of the inside looking better than the outside, the kitchen looks like it needs some serious updating. But for less than $130,000, it seems like a good kitchen remodeling and some cosmetic work on the outside could skyrocket the house’s worth.

(Incidentally, this house is right next door to The Roxbury, a tres-chic, very fun hotel. We highly recommend clicking on the link we just provided and having a look around. Drool!)

40 Bridge Street, Roxbury (Prudential Fox) GMAP
Asking Price: $129,900
Beds: 4
Baths: 2
Square Feet: 1,900
Year Built: 1905
Land: .33 acres
Taxes: $2,421
Features: Above-ground pool, built-ins, fireplace

There’s a glass shell house for sale in Roxbury. It’s weird and cool; we’ve mentioned it before on the blog. We’ve also talked about the octagonal cabin. And now, to add another to our list of unique Roxbury properties, here’s a church, located right in the village.

Built in 1925, this used to be the Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church, which was closed by the Albany Diocese in 2011 (an article on its closing here). We saw it and immediately had that fantasy; you know the one. Chucking it all and moving to countryside to a ramshackle old church, complete with an 80s movie house cleaning montage.

Luckily, this church is hardly ramshackle and looks pretty good on the inside. Yes, it’s going to require some renovations in order to turn it into something other than a church. But it’s got a lot of promise and the price isn’t bad. Zoned commercial.

53266 State Highway 30, Roxbury (Coldwell Banker) GMAP
Asking Price: $128,000
Beds: N/A
Baths: N/A (although we assume there are bathrooms)
Square Feet: 2,400
Year Built: 1925
Land: .57 acres
Taxes: Unknown
Features: Storage shed, village location

Roxbury Methodist Church, via Wikipedia

The phrase “tucked away” is used entirely too much in real estate listing descriptions and town websites touting the remoteness of a location. And yet, we found ourselves thinking it as we traveled the long and winding Route 30 through Delaware County to the hamlet of Roxbury.

It was worth the trip. Roxbury is located in the eastern part of the county, and Route 30, which zips straight through town, is white-picket fence territory with lots of pretty houses and blooming trees just to drive the point home.

In typical “Don’t Blink” fashion, we found ourselves beyond Roxbury before we even realized it, and we ended up having to back track to get a better look at what’s there, which is not much, but we weren’t surprised by that. Roxbury is a quality-over-quantity kind of place, and what is there is cute, bucolic, and peaceful. In fact, it was nearly dead quiet for a sunny spring Saturday morning.

Kirkside Park, Roxbury

It’s completely understandable why someone like John Burroughs might become a naturalist growing up in Roxbury. It’s beautiful country out there, and fairly pristine.

There are a number of Main Street properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places (here’s a good list of them), and Roxbury is one of around 800 communities participating in Preserve America, a federal initiative that helps communities protect their historical heritage. The town (pop. ~2,500) even has small but thriving arts community via the Roxbury Arts Group.

Kirkside Park is one of the reasons we enjoyed our jaunt to Roxbury. Centered around small stream, Kirkside consists of a short walking trail, footbridges, a playground, and a small, open Victorian playhouse for kids that was delightfully free of graffiti and the detritus of a hundred squatters using it as a hiding place, as it might in some other towns.

The real estate market is modest in Roxbury. Given its proximity to Hunter and Windham Mountains, there are plenty of luxury ski-chalet getaway houses on the market, and there are a few bargains, too. The taxes aren’t too bad, ranging from around $2000 to $7000 for the properties we perused.

Roxbury is remote, there’s no doubt about it. But all that isolation has kept it shiny and untarnished. More on the town, its history, and what to do there on the town blog.

Kirkside Park, Roxbury

Seems like a low price, doesn’t it, for a place that was Architectural Record’s house of the month in 2004? This is the home of the late architect Seymour Rutkin, set on five hilltop acres in the ever-hippifying town of Roxbury. The Glass Shell House has 2,300 square feet, three beds and two-and-a-half baths. The half-dome is south facing and passive solar (the overhang keeps out overheating summer sun in summer, lets in direct sunlight to heat you, utility-free, in winter). It looks a wee bit awkward inside, something that might be cured with more careful furniture placement. But it’s a contender for coolest eco-house upstate, right up there with the New Paltz Dome. Last we checked, it was over a million for that one, making the Glass Shell House a downright bargain.

We’ve had a lot of requests to seek out cool and unusual properties: barns, churches, houses crafted out of old silos. So we were thrilled when this octagonal Roxbury cabin popped up in our listings section. Part yurt, part cabin, all affordable. It has a wraparound deck with mountain views, more than five acres, and insanely low taxes — the listing says $100/month. The bathroom is all new and pretty cute — knotty wood paneling mixed with new white porcelain fixtures. It’s basically one open room with a wood stove in the middle, plus two beds and a bath. Nicely priced, yes?
Roxbury Cabin, $138,000